Narcissis

Cephisus, river god, slow evening stroll
Along the shore of a meandering
Stream, in stillness, moving reflectively
Beneath a waning sky, shadows long gone
Into hiding places, hiding faces,

A life yet to be. And yet to be is
A boy running freely along stream banks
Trod not long ago by his father's feet,
Walking toward this day. The vision was
Complete, profound, an image of himself

Skipping on top of the slippery stones
Without fear of consequence, vibrant joy
Of life without limits, youth not asking,
Only doing. There is no tomorrow,
Not now anyway. The stream is so still.

A quiet moment felt, heard, smelled warmly,
Nothing much to tell, soothingly I fell
In love and could not leave the embrace of
The face looking back at me. My heart longed
To be one in fields of the daffodil.

Cephisus was Narcissis’s father; daffodils and narcissis are the same.

Above photo: Armor Rock